It doesn’t matter what walk of life you’ve traversed, dripping in gold or dripping in dirt

The choices that you may have made or had others force on you, that doesn’t define you

The consequences of those choices don’t define you

Trust me when I say, God does not see you as a set of circumstances, he doesn’t define you by good or bad choices

He sees you accepting his enemies taunts over you and all he longs for, the only thing he desires is your whole heart

He is jealous for you, raging with fire for you to know your true value

Because he knows, apart from him we misspend our worth, we throw it away with cultural trends, with unattainable expectations, with idols of money and perfection and comparison, on things that are constantly shifting and changing

God is steadfast, he doesn’t change with the seasons

It’s only when you step into your true identity that you will strip away the influence of the world to cut you down, because underneath it all, the unseen rulers know that if you rise as a child of God, the light in you will push back the boundaries of darkness because darkness is as light to Jesus

God has never wanted to reduce you, he has always wanted to adopt you

Sons and daughters of pure love, pure grace, pure peace

Jesus didn’t willingly reduce himself to an unrecognisable mess of human flesh and then rise from death, so that we have no way out of our own mess

In his name, you have inherited the entire Kingdom of heaven, you have power and authority to dismiss the voices that tell you you’re not worthy

No amount of striving is going to rewrite my history or quick fix my flaws

My mind has succumbed too many times to the visible and invisible taunts of worthlessness

Inflicted by self, by careless words in well meaning mouths or downright spat out with spite by people also lost inside their own mental health plights

Mine is a life potholed by moments of rejection which have so often threatened to incapacitate my person

But greater than any rejection is my confidence that I am accepted, by God no less, and who would argue with him?!

The devil is who and he’ll make you believe that God hates you, but there is absolutely no foundation or slither of truth there

So I’ve started asking a different question, not who do I say I am

But I ask who does God say I am and I choose to believe it, regardless of feelings

The power in truth is no hippy notion of filling our lives with physical satisfactions which are only fleeting distractions

I have found the power in truth, is that, spoken out loud and chosen inside it begins to uproot the lies that degrade our lives and in its place grows a tree of life

Irrevocable value takes root

It forms a system in my heart that holds together the banks that previously threatened to fall apart

Each root a whisper from heaven writing a love song in the depths of my soul

You are forgiven, you are loved, you are accepted, you are protected, you are redeemed, you are worthy of love, you were seen before you were conceived, you were held in the womb, you are treasured, you have a purpose and that purpose is to be known and loved and to know and love your Creator, you have a God given right to be alive just as you are right now

Because His love isn’t forceful but it is a force, His grace takes you on a journey to freedom without guilt

He celebrates you in the light of Jesus

He, the Holy Spirit, is the greatest of counsellors leading us alongside gentle waters and green pastures, even when storms are raging overhead he’ll help us find rest amidst the maelstrom and give us power to command its stillness

God knows we’re not perfect and doesn’t expect it, but he also knows that being in his presence will help us navigate the mines in our mind fields

Fear cannot exist where perfect love is

So I choose to see myself through the lense of his love

I am not lost, I’m found and this pavement of peace that I walk on is hedged in by grace

Faith
You were the mustard seed
That moved my mountain of fearHope
You made a way
Created joy that sustained my daysLove
You grew a life we called Grace
Beautiful beyond my words
These three things will always remainFaith, Hope, Love
But Love, you gave us Grace
And for this, you are the greatest

Empires rise, at our command
The earth groans, a dying scream
The heavy weight of our consumerist waste
Destruction in our wake
The poor stumble beneath the fists of the commands of the rich
Nation goes against nation, at our command
The bombs fall, at our command
Babies ripped from life, at our command

Love and hate spar for first place
The ever-increasing great divide
Trapped behind the bars of pride
Humanities cracks are wide
Broken pieces of life lay scattered
Selfish desire winning over selfless sacrifice

I do not stand in judgment
I stand among the judged
Who can save us from this web we’ve spun?
None are innocent
We each own at least a stroke in this disaster we’ve created

Nothing has come from the power we’ve taken
From the pedestal we’ve placed ourselves on
The loud chorus of me, me, me
We all want to be served and not serve
I was not born to have power over you
You were not born to stand above me
A great man understands humility

A cross for humanity
A saving grace
Truth to be chosen
A hand to hold when strength is faded
A power to look beyond ourselves
A love that breaks our prison cells